Islam is the last of three great monotheisms that trace their origins to
the patriarch Abraham. While Jews trace their lineage from Abraham
through his son Isaac, Muslims claim descent from Abraham’s son Ishmael.
According to Islamic teaching, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the
Prophet Muhammad while he was fasting and praying in a cave outside
Mecca during the “night of power” in 610 c.e. Over the next several
years, the Archangel revealed divine truth to the Prophet. Written down
shortly after Mohammed’s death, these revelations became the Holy
Qu’ran, the sacred text of Islam. Gabriel proclaimed that God ( Allah
in Arabic) had spoken the same message twice before, fi rst to the Jews,
through Moses, and then to the Christians, through Jesus of Nazareth.
Because the followers of these prophets had corrupted the revelation, God
decided to give humanity one last chance, speaking truth through Gabriel
to Mohammed, the last or “seal” of the prophets. Because God’s
revelation came to Mohammed in Arabic, the Qu’ran cannot be translated.
Muslims learn Arabic to read the original text, and devout believers
try to memorize the entire book. Illiterate Muslims may memorize
important verses learned orally.
The core teachings of the Qu’ran make up what Muslims refer to as
the “fi ve pillars of Islam.” Each pillar expresses a key doctrine of the faith.
Shahadah, the fi rst pillar, requires the believer to proclaim the oneness of
God and to submit to the divine will. “Islam” literally means “submission
to the will of God,” and a “Muslim” is “one who submits.” Like Judaism,
Islam rejects the Christian trinity, teaching that God is one, whole, and
indivisible. Muslims revere Jesus as a great prophet (he is mentioned
more frequently in the Qu’ran than Mohammed), but they reject the
belief that he is God incarnate, born of a virgin and raised from the dead.
22 OSAMA BIN LADEN
Like Christianity, Islam seeks converts. Tawhid requires Muslims to proclaim
the core truth of their faith: “There is no God but Allah, and
Mohammed is his prophet.” By speaking this declaration of faith ( Shahda )
three times in front of witnesses, one becomes a Muslim.
Salat, the second pillar of Islam, requires Muslims to pray fi ve times a
day facing Mecca. The fi rst prayer takes place before dawn, the second
around noon, the third at dusk, the fourth just after sunset, and the fi fth
before retiring for the night. Prayers must be performed prostrate in a
clean place free of blood and excrement. They usually take about fi ve
minutes to complete. Prayers may be rescheduled or made up as necessity
dictates. A Muslim surgeon, for example, does not stop an operation
to perform Salat. On Friday ( Jama ), Muslims perform the midday
prayer at their mosque, if their circumstances permit. Jama Salat includes
a homily or short sermon by the imam (Muslim cleric) or a member of
the congregation. Those who consider Muslims overly devout because of
their need to pray fi ve times a day would do well to remember that
Christianity commands its followers to “pray without ceasing.” 6 Traditional
Judaism prescribes prayers for virtually every daily activity.
Zakat, the giving of alms, constitutes the third pillar of Islam. The
Qu’ran requires Muslims to give 2.5 percent of their annual worth to charity.
Once a formal tax that funded government activities beyond poor relief,
Zakat has become an ideal toward which devout Muslims strive. Just
as Jews and Christians consider the biblical tithe (one-tenth of annual
income) a desirable goal, even if they fall short of meeting it, Muslims living
in secular states often aim to donate to their mosque and/or Islamic
charities as close to the specifi ed amount as they can afford.
Sawm (fasting), the fourth pillar of Islam, requires Muslims to fast during
Ramadan , the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, the month
during which Mohammed received his revelation from the Archangel
Gabriel. During Ramadan, Muslims consume no food or drink (including
water) from sunup to sundown and abstain from sex during daylight
hours. Because the lunar calendar does not align accurately with the solar
calendar in use today, Ramadan occurs at a different time each year. When
it falls during the summer, fasting for the long hours of daylight can be
challenging. However, Islam approaches Sawm with the same grace and
fl exibility it applies to Salat . Pregnant women and men doing hard
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 23
physical labor are not expected to fast, but they are encouraged to make
up the fasting when they are physically able to do so.
Hajj , pilgrimage, is the fi fth pillar of Islam. Every Muslim with the fi -
nancial means to do so must make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca
once in his or her lifetime. Mecca’s Grand Mosque contains an ancient
shrine known as the Ka’ba (cube), placed there (according to tradition)
by Abraham. By the time of the Prophet, the Ka’ba had become
the focus of polytheistic worship, which he condemned as idolatry. Gabriel
called upon Mohammed to cleanse the Ka’ba of the idols placed
there by diverse worshipers. This cleansing mission set him on a collision
course with the powerful tribes that controlled the caravan trade
through Mecca. These groups profi ted from the religious activities at
the Ka’ba in the same way shopowners and innkeepers in a medieval
cathedral town benefi ted from veneration of the cathedral’s relics. Pilgrims
need food, a place to sleep, and other goods and services that
they must purchase locally. Mohammed and his followers fl ed persecution
in Mecca for the safety of neighboring Medina. There he raised an
army, defeated an invading army in the famous Battle of the Trenches,
and, after a long struggle, returned to Mecca in 632. He fi nally fulfi lled
the mission given him by the Archangel Gabriel 20 years before to
purify the Ka’ba. Hajj commemorates the Prophet’s journey from Medina
to Mecca. Muslims who have made the pilgrimage add the term
Haji (men) or Hajia (women) to their names, signifying that they have
fulfi lled this sacred duty.
Beyond the fi ve pillars, Islam has an extensive system of beliefs and
practices that govern all aspects of life. As with any religion, observance
varies widely and has been shaped by local culture. Muslims believe in
a fi nal judgment in which Allah welcomes the faithful into paradise
and condemns the wicked to hell. They do not consume alcohol or
narcotics, in part because consuming these mind-altering drugs lowers
inhibitions and can lead to a host of other sins. Islam has a dietary code
very similar to Jewish Kosher laws. It prohibits consumption of blood,
carrion (animals that have died spontaneously), pork, and any food
sacrifi ced to idols. Like all religious leaders, the Prophet Mohammed
provided a host of rulings affecting all areas of personal and social life.
Known as the Hadiths or “sayings” of the prophet, these statements
24 OSAMA BIN LADEN
stand second only to the Holy Qu’ran in guiding Muslim behavior. 7
The Qu’ran , the Hadiths , and the body of rulings by the ulema (religious
scholars) form the basis of sharia (Islamic law) governing Muslim
states such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Sharia varies from country
to country and has been infl uenced by other legal traditions. The
extreme, infl exible version of sharia enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan
is neither typical nor endorsed by the majority of Muslim legal
scholars.
Like any body of sacred literature, the Qu’ran and the Hadiths have
had to be interpreted, especially as new issues unforeseen by the Prophet
arose over the centuries. The dress code adopted by Muslims illustrates
the complexity of Muslim belief and practice. The Prophet instructed
women to cover all parts of their bodies except their faces and hands.
Muslim women who embrace secularism may consider this dress code a
manifestation of medieval Arabic culture that is no longer applicable today.
In much of the West and in most Muslim countries, women cover
their hair with the traditional head scarf known as a hijab. In more conservative
societies, women add a veil that covers their mouth and nose.
Only extremely conservative groups like the Taliban require that women
be covered from head to toe in the cumbersome burqa .
Like their Jewish and Christian counterparts, Muslim scholars have
had to rule on a host of issues neither expressly forbidden nor explicitly
allowed by the Qu’ran and Hadiths . For example, coffee became available
in the Arabian Peninsula long after the Prophet’s death. Was the
new drink haram (forbidden) or halal (permitted)? Reasoning by analogy,
the ulema concluded that since coffee had none of the undesirable effects
of alcohol, believers could drink it. The Apostle Paul faced similar challenges
when asked to mediate disputes in the early Christian church. “Is it
permissible to eat food sacrifi ced to idols?” the Corinthians asked. “Yes,”
Paul replied, “unless doing so causes potential converts to turn away from
Christianity.” 8
SUNNI AND SHI’A
Soon after the Mohammed’s death, a dispute arose that would eventually
divide the Muslim world into two broad groups. Like all leaders of his
time, the Prophet Mohammed had both religious and political authority.
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 25
His contemporaries could not even have imagined separating the two,
let alone effecting the separation. When Mohammed died, his followers
argued over who should succeed him. The majority believed that the
keeper of the prophet’s Sunnah (traditions) should be chosen from among
his followers according to the principle of shura (consultation). This group
became known as Sunnis. Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law Ali disagreed,
arguing that the Caliph (guardian) should be a member of the
prophet’s own family. He claimed the title for himself as the Prophet’s most
direct male heir and thus for his line. Those who supported this interpretation
of Mohammed’s wishes called themselves “partisans of Ali,”
Shi’a in Arabic. Ali became the fourth Caliph in 658, but he ruled only
until 661, when a rebel soldier assassinated him. Sunnis regained and
maintained control of the Caliphate, which passed from Arab to Ottoman
Turkish control in the Middle Ages and disappeared in 1924 when
Mustapha Kemal established the modern secular state of Turkey. Most
Shi’a have historically followed the teachings of 12 imams beginning with
Ali himself and ending with Muhammad Ali Mahdi. Born in 868, Ali
Mahdi disappeared from human view in 874. Prophesy holds that he will
return to complete his work of making Islam the global religion at some
future date. 9
Other doctrinal differences divide Sunni and Shi’a Islam. Shi’a
clergy typically play a greater role in religious life and politics than do
Sunni imams. This difference explains why clerics like Grand Ayatollah
Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani and Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-
Sadr enjoy such power and infl uence in contemporary Iraq. Like most
Islamist extremists, bin Laden came to consider Shi’a Kafi rs (nonbelievers).
Today 85 to 90 percent of Muslims are Sunni.
JIHAD
No Islamic concept has been so misunderstood as jihad , which is usually
(and inaccurately) translated as “holy war.” The Arabic noun jihad
derives from the verb jhd, which means “to strive or exert oneself.” “Holy
struggle” or “struggle for righteousness” thus more closely captures the
meaning of the Arabic word jihad than does “holy war.” Like Judaism
and Christianity, Islam values all human life. “Take not life, which
Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law,” the Qu’ran
26 OSAMA BIN LADEN
instructs. 10 Islam also requires Muslims to seek converts, and the socalled
sword verses in the Qu’ran do sanction violence against nonbelievers.
However, like similar verses in the Hebrew Bible and the New
Testament, these verses should not be taken out of context. The Prophet
taught that jihad should be waged only in defense of Islam and that warfare
must be conducted according to rules distinguishing combatants from
noncombatants and requiring humane treatment of captives. “Fight in the
cause of Allah those who fi ght you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah
loveth not transgressors,” he instructed. 11 Mohammed called this defensive
warfare “the lesser jihad.” He then introduced the “greater jihad”: the
struggle each Muslim undertakes to live a devout life in submission to
the will of Allah. 12 “And strive in His cause as ye ought to strive, (with
sincerity and under discipline),” the Qu’ran proclaims. Allah
“has chosen you, and has imposed no diffi culties on you in religion;
it is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He Who has named you
Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation); that the Messenger
may be a witness for you, and ye be witnesses for mankind!
So establish regular Prayer, give regular Charity, and hold fast to
Allah.” 13
SALAFISM AND WAHHABISM
Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam has experienced revival movements
throughout its long history. Two of these movements, Salafi sm and Wahhabism,
have shaped Saudi society and infl uenced the thinking of Osama
bin Laden. The Salafi st movement originated in the ninth century c.e.,
but the 14th-century Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya
developed it more fully. Derived from the Arabic word salaf meaning “devout
ancestor” (in reference to contemporaries of the Prophet Mohammed),
Salafi sm calls upon Muslims to return to the pure teachings of the
fi rst uma (community of believers), to which the Prophet Mohammed belonged.
In his call for revival, Taymiyya rejected the orthodox Sunni
Muslim teaching that forbids rebellion against Muslim rulers and allowed
jihad against leaders who did not live and govern according to sharia . 14
“Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion
is Allah’s entirely [2:189, 8:39] and Allah’s word is uppermost
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 27
[9:40], therefore, according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way
of this aim must be fought ,” Taymiyya proclaimed. 15 Those who must be
fought thus included unjust Muslim rulers as well as non-Muslims.
In the 18th century, a new Salafi st revival occurred in Arabia. Like
Taymiyya, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) called for a
return to the purity of early Islam. The modern Saudi monarchy developed
out of a 1745 alliance between al-Wahhab and the house of Saud,
a partnership revived in 1932 by Abdul Aziz when he founded modern
Saudi Arabia. In return for a guarantee that the kingdom would be
governed by sharia, al-Wahhab and his descendants agreed to support
the monarchy. 16 During the 19th century, Salafi sm revived once more
and spread to Egypt, Persia (Iran), and Syria, perhaps as a response to
European colonialism. 17 In 20th-century Egypt, Salafi sm would mutate
into the deadly variant embraced by Osama bin Laden.
The problem with Salafi sm (or any other religious revival) is that its
proponents claim that they alone know what purity of practice and belief
truly is. They do not recognize and cannot accept that what they offer is
an interpretation, not infallible truth. Historians know very little about
the Prophet Mohammed’s Arabia. Any Salafi st calls to return to that pristine
age must, therefore, be based more on conviction than on historical
evidence. Because revivalists cannot accept such relativism, they are usually
among the most intolerant of believers.
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Contemporary Salafi sm has its roots in Egypt, where a new movement
known as “Islamism” began in the period between the two World Wars.
In 1928, Hasan al-Banna established in Cairo an organization known as
the Muslim Brotherhood. Like Ibn Taymiyya and al-Wahhab before him,
al-Banna wished for a return to the world of the seventh century, during
which Islamic teaching governed all aspects of Muslim life. The impending
end of colonialism, however, gave al-Banna’s movement a new
urgency as he saw a real opportunity to regenerate Egyptian society. Competing
for power after the British left was the corrupt regime of King
Farouk, widely seen as a British puppet, and later the secular and socialist
Arab nationalism of Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser. Al-Banna rejected
both alternatives, arguing vehemently that the way to the future
28 OSAMA BIN LADEN
lay through the past. Only by rejecting the ways of the West and embracing
their Islamic heritage could Egyptians prosper. Al-Banna also
elevated the lesser jihad above the greater and proclaimed it a Muslim duty
more sacred than Hajj . “Many Muslims today mistakenly believe that
fi ghting the enemy is jihad asghar (a lesser jihad) and that fi ghting one’s
ego is jihad akbar (a greater jihad).” This idea was mistaken, he declared. 18
Like Wahhab, he believed that, in addition to fi ghting nonbelievers, Muslims
might also wage jihad against tyrannical Muslim rulers.
The Egyptian government shut down the Brotherhood’s offi ces and
organs in 1948 and assassinated al-Banna in 1949 in retaliation for the
assassination of the Egyptian prime minister. The Brotherhood, of course,
continued to operate and even grow, albeit clandestinely. A new spokesman
for the movement emerged after al-Banna’s death, developed his
ideas further, and spread them farther abroad. Sayid Qutb joined the
Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1950s and became its most famous
spokesman. “Islam, then, is the only Divine way of life which brings out
the noblest human characteristics, developing and using them for the construction
of human society,” he proclaimed. “Islam has remained unique
in this respect to this day. Those who deviate from this system and want
some other system, whether it be based on nationalism, color and race,
class struggle, or similar corrupt theories, are truly enemies of mankind!” 19
In addition to declaring Western nationalism and socialism inappropriate
for Muslim societies, Qutb rejected the idea that jihad was purely
defensive warfare. “Thus, wherever an Islamic community exists which
is a concrete example of the Divinely-ordained system of life,” he asserted,
“it has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political
authority so that it may establish the Divine system on earth,
while it leaves the matter of belief to individual conscience.” 20 Although
Qutb and the Brotherhood cooperated with a military coup led
by Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser to overthrow King Farouk in 1952, the
movement turned against Nasser when he refused to create the hopedfor
Islamic republic. Nasser believed Egypt’s future lay in embracing Western
secularism, nationalism, and socialism, all of which were anathema
to Qutb.
Like al-Banna before him, Qutb died a martyr’s death. Nasser executed
him in 1967 for plotting against the government. His martyrdom
helped the movement grow. During his years of imprisonment, Qutb
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 29
wrote Milestones, a detailed articulation of his Islamist worldview that
specifi cally rebuts the political philosophy of Egypt’s secular government.
Osama bin Laden read this book as a student and was profoundly
infl uenced by it. Following Qutb’s death, the Muslim Brotherhood split
into factions. While the Brotherhood pursued its goals through education
and the political process, Islamic Jihad embraced violence. Its eventual
leader, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, would help to convert bin Laden to
the cause of global jihad.
Qutb’s writings and the example of his life profoundly infl uenced the
young bin Laden. His friend at University, Jamal Khalifa, described this
infl uence. For his parents’ generation, Khalifa explained, Islam was a tradition
that structured their lives. Qutb, however, “was concentrating on
the meaning of Islam that it’s the way of life.” According to Khalifa,
Qutb “infl uenced every Muslim in that period of time.” He also noted
that Qutb’s brother Mohammed, a visiting professor at King Abdul Aziz
University during the late 1970s, used to give lectures which Khalifa
and bin Laden attended. “He was giving us very good lessons about education—
how to educate our children.” 21
Because modern Islamism offers an alternative form of governance
to the secularism of Nasser and other Arab nationalists, it is sometimes
called political Islam. The European Enlightenment of the 18th century
introduced the idea that church and state should separate. This concept,
enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, made religion a purely private
matter. Individuals could worship as they pleased within a civil society
governed by nonreligious law. Islamism (political Islam) rejects this
notion, insisting that Islam govern all areas of life from morality to diet
and dress. Because this desire for a theocratic state in which religion
governs all aspects of life harkens back to what in the West is a pre-
Enlightenment world, Western observers often mistakenly view Islamism
as an atavistic movement rather than as contemporary effort to fi nd
a purely Muslim solution to the challenges of modernity.
THE ISLAMIC AWAKENING
Islamism made little headway outside Egypt, and even there it remained
marginalized. Saudi Arabia alone welcomed Muslim Brotherhood members
fl eeing persecution. The Brotherhood’s Salafi st views accorded well
30 OSAMA BIN LADEN
with the Kingdom’s conservative, Wahhabi Islam, although Saudi clerics
did not support violent jihad. In addition, the Saudi monarchy saw
Nasser’s pan-Arabism as a threat to its existence and considered the
Muslim Brotherhood a useful counter to Nasser’s popularity in the Arab
world. 22 For most educated Arabs, however, emulating the West seemed
to offer the best way forward.
This view suffered a severe shock in June 1967. Within six days, the
army and air force of Israel soundly defeated the forces of Egypt, Syria,
Iraq, and Jordan. They captured the Old City of Jerusalem with its Wailing
Wall and Dome of the Rock, the West Bank of the Jordan River, Gaza,
the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. This humiliating loss led
many Arabs to question the secular basis of their governments. Those of a
religious bent wondered if God were not punishing them for embracing
Western decadence. Amid this turmoil, Islamism grew more popular. Many
Muslims now believed that the way to the future lay through the past.
Only by returning to the values and social system of the prophet’s uma
(community of believers) could Muslim civilization recover the stature
it had once known under the medieval caliphs. This Islamist revival became
known as the “awakening.”
Most Islamists do not, however, use or condone violence to achieve
their goals. Islamism today is a broad movement sometimes called the
“New Islamic Discourse.” Muslim scholars, religious leaders, and intellectuals
within this movement do not wish to turn the clock back to the
seventh century. Instead, they seek to embrace the technological and material
advantages of modernity while preserving Islamic faith, traditions,
and culture. The movement does not reject modernity, but it does challenge
the notion that the only way to modernize is by emulating the example
of the West. Many scholars in the movement accept the advantages
of science and technology but still wish to live in religiously based
societies governed by the principle of consultation rather than mass democracy.
They accept the complementarity but not the strict equality of
the sexes. They wish to decide how best to order their own affairs and
bitterly resent the United States or any other nation that seeks to impose
its way of life upon them. 23 Although many Islamists blame U.S. foreign
policy for threatening their way of life, the real challenge comes from the
forces of globalization, which no one really controls.
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 31
FAMILY
In addition to the intellectual currents of the era, the elaborate bin Laden
family system infl uenced Osama’s outlook. His mother remarried within a
few years of his birth, and his father died when bin Laden was only nine.
Although he revered his father, bin Laden could have had little contact
with a man whose numerous wives and construction projects kept him on
the move. Mohammed’s simple lifestyle and piety infl uenced his young
son, but, as bin Laden grew to manhood, he also had the countervailing
example of his eldest half brother Salem, who became patriarch of the
family upon his father’s death in 1967 and lived the life of an international
playboy. He took bin Laden on some of his trips abroad, although
his younger brother does not seem to have succumbed to the temptations
of the fl esh Salem enjoyed in Europe and America. 24 For a complex variety
of personal reasons, bin Laden practiced the conservative Wahhabi
Islam devoutly and consistently.
Those who knew bin Laden as a young man attest to his desire to emulate
his father’s work ethic and simple life. Khaled Batarfi described how
bin Laden differed from his brothers in this respect. “That’s the way the
bin Ladins are. They study and work all of them, all the people I know,”
Batarfi observed, “but he [bin Laden] was different because he used to
work with his hands, go drive tractors and like his father eat with the
workers, work from dawn to sundown, tirelessly in the fi eld. So he wasn’t
the rich boy.” 25
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S EMERGING WORLDVIEW
How precisely the complex mix of intellectual currents, contemporary
events, and family circumstances shaped bin Laden’s worldview remains
unclear. While the core tenets of his conservative Muslim faith were established
by the time he left high school, his political views had only
begun to take shape. The writings of Qutb, the teachings of his mentor
Abdullah Azzam, and the radial views of Islamic Jihad would complete
the formation of his worldview.
A Saudi journalist who knew bin Laden when he lived in Jeddah
provided what may be the most succinct and incisive assessment of his
beliefs before the life-changing experience of Afghanistan. “Osama was
32 OSAMA BIN LADEN
just like many of us who become part of the [Muslim] Brotherhood
movement in Saudi Arabia. The only difference which set him apart from
me and others, he was more religious,” Jamal Khashoggi recalled.
He adhered to a very strict interpretation of Islam. He did not
smoke, refused to shake hands with women, and watched only the
news on television. No pictures adorned the walls of his home as he
considered art un-Islamic. Although he belonged to a wealthy family
he insisted on living a simple life, eschewing all extravagance. 26
Osama bin Laden’s emerging worldview has been dubbed “jihadist
Salafi sm.” It consists of the core beliefs of the larger Islamist movement:
a rejection of Western law, political systems, and especially secularism as
inappropriate for Muslim societies. Bin Laden also came to believe that
jihad was a duty, what Islamist extremists call the “sixth pillar of Islam.”
His jihad would be waged aggressively against Islam’s enemies, near and
far. He would eventually be persuaded that violence could be used against
other Muslims, especially rulers who failed to govern according to sharia.
However, he had not yet fully embraced these radical beliefs before he
left Saudi Arabia. The Afghan war against the Soviets would be the next
step in his journey toward terrorism.
NOTES
1 . Osama bin Laden, May 1998, in Raymond Ibrahim, ed. and trans., The
Al Qaeda Reader (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), p. 275.
2 . Osama bin Laden, quoted in ibid., p. 276.
3 . Osama bin Laden, quoted in ibid., p. 277.
4 . Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
(New York: Penguin, 2008), pp. 228–229.
5 . Michael Young, “Al-Qaeda’s Forerunner: An Interview with Author and
Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov, on His Latest Book Bin Laden , Describing the 1979
Takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca,” Reason Online , September 27, 2007,
http://www.reason.com/news/printer/122686.html (accessed July 28, 2009).
6. New Oxford Annotated Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991),
New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, p. 295.
7 . For a more detailed discussion of Muslim beliefs and practices see Frederick
Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam , 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan,
1994).
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 33
8 . New Oxford Annotated Bible , New Testament, I Corinthians 8:1–11,
pp. 237–238.
9 . Denny, An Introduction to Islam , pp. 211–214.
10 . Holy Qu’ran, Sura 6:151, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/6.htm#151.
11 . Holy Qu’ran Sura, 2:190, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/2.htm#191.
12 . Explanation of jihad is based on Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Spiritual Significance
of Jihad,” http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC0407-
2391.
13 . Holy Qu’ran, Sura 22:78, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/22.htm#78.
14 . Bernard Haykel, “Radical Salafism: Osama’s Ideology,” 2001, http://mus
lim-canada.org/binladendawn.html#. The author teaches Islamic Law at New
York University.
15. Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad , translated
and excerpted at http://www.islamistwatch.org/main.html.
16 . Ibid.
17. Giles Kepel, Jihad: In Search of Political Islam , trans. Anthony F. Roberts
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 220.
18. Hasan al-Banna, Jihad , translated at http://www.islamistwatch.org/main.
html.
19. Sayd Qutb, Milestones , translated at http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/
qutb/Milestones/characteristics.html.
20. Qutb, Milestones , http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/qutb/Milestones/
jihad.html.
21. Jamal Khalifa, in Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know (New York:
Free Press, 2006), p. 19.
22 . Coll, The Bin Ladens , p. 203.
23 . Sherifa Zuhur, A Hundred Osamas: Islamist Threats and the Future of
Counterinsurgency (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2005),
pp. 19–23.
24 . Zuhur provides the best account of the bin Laden family.
25 . Khalid Batarfi, cited in Bergen, Osama bin Laden I Know , p. 22.
26 . Jamal Khashoggi, cited in ibid., p. 21.
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Chapter 3
AFGHANISTAN
Events conspired to catapult Osama bin Laden from relative obscurity to
the center of world politics in under a decade. The epic year was 1979. As
already noted, the Iranian Revolution and the siege of the Grand Mosque
sent tremors throughout the Muslim world. At the time, bin Laden had
little to say about either incident, although he later criticized Saudi authorities
for using excessive force to retake the Golden Mosque. He may
have been inspired by these events nonetheless, for he soon took up the
cause of violent jihad in a very direct and personal way.
AFGHAN WAR
It would be diffi cult to exaggerate the impact of the Afghan War against
the Soviets on Osama bin Laden. For the fi rst time in his life, he traveled
far from home and remained abroad for several years. On April 14, 1979,
Soviet forces entered Afghanistan to back its tottering communist regime
against a growing Islamist insurgency. The Soviets built up their forces
throughout the year and, on December 27, overthrew the president and
36 OSAMA BIN LADEN
commenced an offensive against the insurgents. Their force strength eventually
numbered more than 100,000 troops operating in support of an
Afghan army of roughly the same size. With little experience of counterinsurgency
and less patience for waging it, the Soviets conducted a brutal
campaign against the general population, which they believed to be
harboring and supporting the insurgents. An estimated one million Afghans
died in the fi ghting.1 Eighty percent of those killed were civilians.2
Tens of thousands more fl ed to refugee camps across the border in neighboring
Pakistan.
Although heavily outgunned by the Soviets, the insurgents had definite
advantages and some powerful friends. They operated amid a sympathetic
population in ideal guerrilla terrain, which they knew intimately.
Eager to offset Iranian infl uence in the region, Saudi Arabia funneled
money to the Afghan insurgents. The United States also saw an opportunity
to hurt the Soviets in the same way the Soviets had hurt the United
States in Vietnam. Supplying the enemy of your enemy was a cherished
Cold War tactic. The confl ict thus became a proxy war in which the
Americans fought the Russians via the Afghans. National Security Adviser
Zbigniew Brzezinski sent an almost gleeful memo to President Jimmy
Carter on the very day Soviet forces crossed the border. “We now have the
opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War,” he wrote. “Indeed, for
almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government,
a confl ict that brought about the demoralization and fi nally the
breakup of the Soviet empire.”3 The insurgents received cash and weapons,
including highly effective shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles
capable of shooting down the lethal MI-24 “Hind” helicopter gunship.
To avoid a direct confrontation with the Soviets, the CIA had to funnel
aid to the insurgents through a third party. Fortunately, the government
of Pakistan was more than willing to help. Embroiled in a perennial
confl ict with India over Kashmir, Pakistan needed to secure its western
border in order to concentrate on its eastern one. Because this policy of
“strategic depth” necessitated a friendly government in Afghanistan,
Pakistan eagerly supported the Islamist insurgency against the Soviets.
The Pakistanis calculated quite accurately that an Islamist government
in Kabul would be unable to cooperate with Hindu “infi dels” in New
Delhi. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) distributed
U.S. and Saudi funds to the various insurgent groups.
AFGHANISTAN 37
ENTER THE MUJAHEDEEN
The Afghan insurgents not only garnered covert support from the United
States and Saudi Arabia; they also attracted volunteers from all over the
Muslim world. Inspired by Islamist teaching, these foreign mujahedeen
(holy warriors) fl ocked to Afghanistan to wage jihad against the Godless
communists in defense of an Islamic state. The commitment and quality
of these volunteers varied widely. Some had the willingness to fi ght but
lacked the training to be effective soldiers. Others, particularly sons of
wealthy Saudis, engaged in a perverse form of disaster tourism, showing
up for a few weeks during school vacations to play at being guerrillas. Insurgent
commanders tolerated these young men because of the resources
they or their countries provided. Foreign fi ghters never numbered more
than a few thousand at any one time and had no appreciable impact
on the outcome of the war.4 One Saudi journalist succinctly described the
movement: “Altogether, people who spent six years and people who spent
six days, maybe the number will come up to ten thousand,” he wrote. “Because
there was even jihad tour. Jihad vacation.”5 His count totaled all
those who spent time in Afghanistan during a 10-year period. The number
of fi ghters available at any one time was a fraction of that number,
those with ability and training even fewer. However, in the folk mythology
of al-Qaeda, the role of the mujahedeen grew to epic proportions, empowering
the movement to believe that it could accomplish anything.
AFGHAN SERVICES OFFICE
As a young man of 21, Osama bin Laden did not immediately race to Afghanistan
to join the fi ght. He had not yet even embraced any form of political
Islam. He did, however, fall under the infl uence of Abdullah Azzam,
a Palestinian Islamist deeply committed to radical Islamism. Azzam and
bin Laden held many beliefs in common. Azzam belonged to the Muslim
Brotherhood, and bin Laden had read with enthusiasm the works of Sayd
Qutb, one of its leading lights. Azzam had been engaged in the Palestinian
struggle since the 1960s, but the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation
Organization from Jordan in 1971 had temporarily stymied that
effort. Bin Laden had already developed empathy for the Palestinian
cause and a deep visceral hatred of Israel. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan,
Azzam readily embraced the cause of the Afghan insurgents,
38 OSAMA BIN LADEN
even though he believed that Palestine was “the foremost Islamic problem.”
“Whoever can, from among the Arabs, fi ght jihad in Palestine, then
he must start there,” he instructed. “And, if he is not capable, then he
must set out for Afghanistan. For the rest of the Muslims, I believe they
should start their jihad in Afghanistan.” The urgency and chances for
success combined with the purity of the mujahedeen cause, commended
the struggle against the Soviets as a precursor to the fi ght against the Israelis.
6 As a visiting lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah
in 1981, Azzam publicized the Afghan cause, no doubt with the approval
of the Saudi government, which also supported the mujahedeen. A Pakistani
engineering student described Azzam’s role in promoting the
Afghan cause. “He used to be popular among Arab religious scholars, especially
to Members of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Jamal Ismail recalled.
“He was the one who introduced the Afghan issue to all Muslims.”7
Azzam visited bin Laden’s home in Jeddah during the mid-1980s. Bin
Laden’s university friend described the visit. “Osama invited me to his
house in al Aziziyah [in Jeddah],” Jamal Khalifa recalled. “He has a building
there, he was twenty-fi ve, twenty-six, he’s already married a couple
of times. He told me Abdullah Azzam [was coming]. I knew Abdullah
Azzam from his books. He’s a very good writer and he’s real educated
so I was really eager to hear him when he started to talk about Afghanistan.”
8 The references to bin Laden’s age put the meeting date in 1982
or 1983.
the patriarch Abraham. While Jews trace their lineage from Abraham
through his son Isaac, Muslims claim descent from Abraham’s son Ishmael.
According to Islamic teaching, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the
Prophet Muhammad while he was fasting and praying in a cave outside
Mecca during the “night of power” in 610 c.e. Over the next several
years, the Archangel revealed divine truth to the Prophet. Written down
shortly after Mohammed’s death, these revelations became the Holy
Qu’ran, the sacred text of Islam. Gabriel proclaimed that God ( Allah
in Arabic) had spoken the same message twice before, fi rst to the Jews,
through Moses, and then to the Christians, through Jesus of Nazareth.
Because the followers of these prophets had corrupted the revelation, God
decided to give humanity one last chance, speaking truth through Gabriel
to Mohammed, the last or “seal” of the prophets. Because God’s
revelation came to Mohammed in Arabic, the Qu’ran cannot be translated.
Muslims learn Arabic to read the original text, and devout believers
try to memorize the entire book. Illiterate Muslims may memorize
important verses learned orally.
The core teachings of the Qu’ran make up what Muslims refer to as
the “fi ve pillars of Islam.” Each pillar expresses a key doctrine of the faith.
Shahadah, the fi rst pillar, requires the believer to proclaim the oneness of
God and to submit to the divine will. “Islam” literally means “submission
to the will of God,” and a “Muslim” is “one who submits.” Like Judaism,
Islam rejects the Christian trinity, teaching that God is one, whole, and
indivisible. Muslims revere Jesus as a great prophet (he is mentioned
more frequently in the Qu’ran than Mohammed), but they reject the
belief that he is God incarnate, born of a virgin and raised from the dead.
22 OSAMA BIN LADEN
Like Christianity, Islam seeks converts. Tawhid requires Muslims to proclaim
the core truth of their faith: “There is no God but Allah, and
Mohammed is his prophet.” By speaking this declaration of faith ( Shahda )
three times in front of witnesses, one becomes a Muslim.
Salat, the second pillar of Islam, requires Muslims to pray fi ve times a
day facing Mecca. The fi rst prayer takes place before dawn, the second
around noon, the third at dusk, the fourth just after sunset, and the fi fth
before retiring for the night. Prayers must be performed prostrate in a
clean place free of blood and excrement. They usually take about fi ve
minutes to complete. Prayers may be rescheduled or made up as necessity
dictates. A Muslim surgeon, for example, does not stop an operation
to perform Salat. On Friday ( Jama ), Muslims perform the midday
prayer at their mosque, if their circumstances permit. Jama Salat includes
a homily or short sermon by the imam (Muslim cleric) or a member of
the congregation. Those who consider Muslims overly devout because of
their need to pray fi ve times a day would do well to remember that
Christianity commands its followers to “pray without ceasing.” 6 Traditional
Judaism prescribes prayers for virtually every daily activity.
Zakat, the giving of alms, constitutes the third pillar of Islam. The
Qu’ran requires Muslims to give 2.5 percent of their annual worth to charity.
Once a formal tax that funded government activities beyond poor relief,
Zakat has become an ideal toward which devout Muslims strive. Just
as Jews and Christians consider the biblical tithe (one-tenth of annual
income) a desirable goal, even if they fall short of meeting it, Muslims living
in secular states often aim to donate to their mosque and/or Islamic
charities as close to the specifi ed amount as they can afford.
Sawm (fasting), the fourth pillar of Islam, requires Muslims to fast during
Ramadan , the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, the month
during which Mohammed received his revelation from the Archangel
Gabriel. During Ramadan, Muslims consume no food or drink (including
water) from sunup to sundown and abstain from sex during daylight
hours. Because the lunar calendar does not align accurately with the solar
calendar in use today, Ramadan occurs at a different time each year. When
it falls during the summer, fasting for the long hours of daylight can be
challenging. However, Islam approaches Sawm with the same grace and
fl exibility it applies to Salat . Pregnant women and men doing hard
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 23
physical labor are not expected to fast, but they are encouraged to make
up the fasting when they are physically able to do so.
Hajj , pilgrimage, is the fi fth pillar of Islam. Every Muslim with the fi -
nancial means to do so must make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca
once in his or her lifetime. Mecca’s Grand Mosque contains an ancient
shrine known as the Ka’ba (cube), placed there (according to tradition)
by Abraham. By the time of the Prophet, the Ka’ba had become
the focus of polytheistic worship, which he condemned as idolatry. Gabriel
called upon Mohammed to cleanse the Ka’ba of the idols placed
there by diverse worshipers. This cleansing mission set him on a collision
course with the powerful tribes that controlled the caravan trade
through Mecca. These groups profi ted from the religious activities at
the Ka’ba in the same way shopowners and innkeepers in a medieval
cathedral town benefi ted from veneration of the cathedral’s relics. Pilgrims
need food, a place to sleep, and other goods and services that
they must purchase locally. Mohammed and his followers fl ed persecution
in Mecca for the safety of neighboring Medina. There he raised an
army, defeated an invading army in the famous Battle of the Trenches,
and, after a long struggle, returned to Mecca in 632. He fi nally fulfi lled
the mission given him by the Archangel Gabriel 20 years before to
purify the Ka’ba. Hajj commemorates the Prophet’s journey from Medina
to Mecca. Muslims who have made the pilgrimage add the term
Haji (men) or Hajia (women) to their names, signifying that they have
fulfi lled this sacred duty.
Beyond the fi ve pillars, Islam has an extensive system of beliefs and
practices that govern all aspects of life. As with any religion, observance
varies widely and has been shaped by local culture. Muslims believe in
a fi nal judgment in which Allah welcomes the faithful into paradise
and condemns the wicked to hell. They do not consume alcohol or
narcotics, in part because consuming these mind-altering drugs lowers
inhibitions and can lead to a host of other sins. Islam has a dietary code
very similar to Jewish Kosher laws. It prohibits consumption of blood,
carrion (animals that have died spontaneously), pork, and any food
sacrifi ced to idols. Like all religious leaders, the Prophet Mohammed
provided a host of rulings affecting all areas of personal and social life.
Known as the Hadiths or “sayings” of the prophet, these statements
24 OSAMA BIN LADEN
stand second only to the Holy Qu’ran in guiding Muslim behavior. 7
The Qu’ran , the Hadiths , and the body of rulings by the ulema (religious
scholars) form the basis of sharia (Islamic law) governing Muslim
states such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Sharia varies from country
to country and has been infl uenced by other legal traditions. The
extreme, infl exible version of sharia enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan
is neither typical nor endorsed by the majority of Muslim legal
scholars.
Like any body of sacred literature, the Qu’ran and the Hadiths have
had to be interpreted, especially as new issues unforeseen by the Prophet
arose over the centuries. The dress code adopted by Muslims illustrates
the complexity of Muslim belief and practice. The Prophet instructed
women to cover all parts of their bodies except their faces and hands.
Muslim women who embrace secularism may consider this dress code a
manifestation of medieval Arabic culture that is no longer applicable today.
In much of the West and in most Muslim countries, women cover
their hair with the traditional head scarf known as a hijab. In more conservative
societies, women add a veil that covers their mouth and nose.
Only extremely conservative groups like the Taliban require that women
be covered from head to toe in the cumbersome burqa .
Like their Jewish and Christian counterparts, Muslim scholars have
had to rule on a host of issues neither expressly forbidden nor explicitly
allowed by the Qu’ran and Hadiths . For example, coffee became available
in the Arabian Peninsula long after the Prophet’s death. Was the
new drink haram (forbidden) or halal (permitted)? Reasoning by analogy,
the ulema concluded that since coffee had none of the undesirable effects
of alcohol, believers could drink it. The Apostle Paul faced similar challenges
when asked to mediate disputes in the early Christian church. “Is it
permissible to eat food sacrifi ced to idols?” the Corinthians asked. “Yes,”
Paul replied, “unless doing so causes potential converts to turn away from
Christianity.” 8
SUNNI AND SHI’A
Soon after the Mohammed’s death, a dispute arose that would eventually
divide the Muslim world into two broad groups. Like all leaders of his
time, the Prophet Mohammed had both religious and political authority.
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 25
His contemporaries could not even have imagined separating the two,
let alone effecting the separation. When Mohammed died, his followers
argued over who should succeed him. The majority believed that the
keeper of the prophet’s Sunnah (traditions) should be chosen from among
his followers according to the principle of shura (consultation). This group
became known as Sunnis. Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law Ali disagreed,
arguing that the Caliph (guardian) should be a member of the
prophet’s own family. He claimed the title for himself as the Prophet’s most
direct male heir and thus for his line. Those who supported this interpretation
of Mohammed’s wishes called themselves “partisans of Ali,”
Shi’a in Arabic. Ali became the fourth Caliph in 658, but he ruled only
until 661, when a rebel soldier assassinated him. Sunnis regained and
maintained control of the Caliphate, which passed from Arab to Ottoman
Turkish control in the Middle Ages and disappeared in 1924 when
Mustapha Kemal established the modern secular state of Turkey. Most
Shi’a have historically followed the teachings of 12 imams beginning with
Ali himself and ending with Muhammad Ali Mahdi. Born in 868, Ali
Mahdi disappeared from human view in 874. Prophesy holds that he will
return to complete his work of making Islam the global religion at some
future date. 9
Other doctrinal differences divide Sunni and Shi’a Islam. Shi’a
clergy typically play a greater role in religious life and politics than do
Sunni imams. This difference explains why clerics like Grand Ayatollah
Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani and Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-
Sadr enjoy such power and infl uence in contemporary Iraq. Like most
Islamist extremists, bin Laden came to consider Shi’a Kafi rs (nonbelievers).
Today 85 to 90 percent of Muslims are Sunni.
JIHAD
No Islamic concept has been so misunderstood as jihad , which is usually
(and inaccurately) translated as “holy war.” The Arabic noun jihad
derives from the verb jhd, which means “to strive or exert oneself.” “Holy
struggle” or “struggle for righteousness” thus more closely captures the
meaning of the Arabic word jihad than does “holy war.” Like Judaism
and Christianity, Islam values all human life. “Take not life, which
Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law,” the Qu’ran
26 OSAMA BIN LADEN
instructs. 10 Islam also requires Muslims to seek converts, and the socalled
sword verses in the Qu’ran do sanction violence against nonbelievers.
However, like similar verses in the Hebrew Bible and the New
Testament, these verses should not be taken out of context. The Prophet
taught that jihad should be waged only in defense of Islam and that warfare
must be conducted according to rules distinguishing combatants from
noncombatants and requiring humane treatment of captives. “Fight in the
cause of Allah those who fi ght you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah
loveth not transgressors,” he instructed. 11 Mohammed called this defensive
warfare “the lesser jihad.” He then introduced the “greater jihad”: the
struggle each Muslim undertakes to live a devout life in submission to
the will of Allah. 12 “And strive in His cause as ye ought to strive, (with
sincerity and under discipline),” the Qu’ran proclaims. Allah
“has chosen you, and has imposed no diffi culties on you in religion;
it is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He Who has named you
Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation); that the Messenger
may be a witness for you, and ye be witnesses for mankind!
So establish regular Prayer, give regular Charity, and hold fast to
Allah.” 13
SALAFISM AND WAHHABISM
Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam has experienced revival movements
throughout its long history. Two of these movements, Salafi sm and Wahhabism,
have shaped Saudi society and infl uenced the thinking of Osama
bin Laden. The Salafi st movement originated in the ninth century c.e.,
but the 14th-century Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya
developed it more fully. Derived from the Arabic word salaf meaning “devout
ancestor” (in reference to contemporaries of the Prophet Mohammed),
Salafi sm calls upon Muslims to return to the pure teachings of the
fi rst uma (community of believers), to which the Prophet Mohammed belonged.
In his call for revival, Taymiyya rejected the orthodox Sunni
Muslim teaching that forbids rebellion against Muslim rulers and allowed
jihad against leaders who did not live and govern according to sharia . 14
“Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion
is Allah’s entirely [2:189, 8:39] and Allah’s word is uppermost
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 27
[9:40], therefore, according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way
of this aim must be fought ,” Taymiyya proclaimed. 15 Those who must be
fought thus included unjust Muslim rulers as well as non-Muslims.
In the 18th century, a new Salafi st revival occurred in Arabia. Like
Taymiyya, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) called for a
return to the purity of early Islam. The modern Saudi monarchy developed
out of a 1745 alliance between al-Wahhab and the house of Saud,
a partnership revived in 1932 by Abdul Aziz when he founded modern
Saudi Arabia. In return for a guarantee that the kingdom would be
governed by sharia, al-Wahhab and his descendants agreed to support
the monarchy. 16 During the 19th century, Salafi sm revived once more
and spread to Egypt, Persia (Iran), and Syria, perhaps as a response to
European colonialism. 17 In 20th-century Egypt, Salafi sm would mutate
into the deadly variant embraced by Osama bin Laden.
The problem with Salafi sm (or any other religious revival) is that its
proponents claim that they alone know what purity of practice and belief
truly is. They do not recognize and cannot accept that what they offer is
an interpretation, not infallible truth. Historians know very little about
the Prophet Mohammed’s Arabia. Any Salafi st calls to return to that pristine
age must, therefore, be based more on conviction than on historical
evidence. Because revivalists cannot accept such relativism, they are usually
among the most intolerant of believers.
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Contemporary Salafi sm has its roots in Egypt, where a new movement
known as “Islamism” began in the period between the two World Wars.
In 1928, Hasan al-Banna established in Cairo an organization known as
the Muslim Brotherhood. Like Ibn Taymiyya and al-Wahhab before him,
al-Banna wished for a return to the world of the seventh century, during
which Islamic teaching governed all aspects of Muslim life. The impending
end of colonialism, however, gave al-Banna’s movement a new
urgency as he saw a real opportunity to regenerate Egyptian society. Competing
for power after the British left was the corrupt regime of King
Farouk, widely seen as a British puppet, and later the secular and socialist
Arab nationalism of Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser. Al-Banna rejected
both alternatives, arguing vehemently that the way to the future
28 OSAMA BIN LADEN
lay through the past. Only by rejecting the ways of the West and embracing
their Islamic heritage could Egyptians prosper. Al-Banna also
elevated the lesser jihad above the greater and proclaimed it a Muslim duty
more sacred than Hajj . “Many Muslims today mistakenly believe that
fi ghting the enemy is jihad asghar (a lesser jihad) and that fi ghting one’s
ego is jihad akbar (a greater jihad).” This idea was mistaken, he declared. 18
Like Wahhab, he believed that, in addition to fi ghting nonbelievers, Muslims
might also wage jihad against tyrannical Muslim rulers.
The Egyptian government shut down the Brotherhood’s offi ces and
organs in 1948 and assassinated al-Banna in 1949 in retaliation for the
assassination of the Egyptian prime minister. The Brotherhood, of course,
continued to operate and even grow, albeit clandestinely. A new spokesman
for the movement emerged after al-Banna’s death, developed his
ideas further, and spread them farther abroad. Sayid Qutb joined the
Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1950s and became its most famous
spokesman. “Islam, then, is the only Divine way of life which brings out
the noblest human characteristics, developing and using them for the construction
of human society,” he proclaimed. “Islam has remained unique
in this respect to this day. Those who deviate from this system and want
some other system, whether it be based on nationalism, color and race,
class struggle, or similar corrupt theories, are truly enemies of mankind!” 19
In addition to declaring Western nationalism and socialism inappropriate
for Muslim societies, Qutb rejected the idea that jihad was purely
defensive warfare. “Thus, wherever an Islamic community exists which
is a concrete example of the Divinely-ordained system of life,” he asserted,
“it has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political
authority so that it may establish the Divine system on earth,
while it leaves the matter of belief to individual conscience.” 20 Although
Qutb and the Brotherhood cooperated with a military coup led
by Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser to overthrow King Farouk in 1952, the
movement turned against Nasser when he refused to create the hopedfor
Islamic republic. Nasser believed Egypt’s future lay in embracing Western
secularism, nationalism, and socialism, all of which were anathema
to Qutb.
Like al-Banna before him, Qutb died a martyr’s death. Nasser executed
him in 1967 for plotting against the government. His martyrdom
helped the movement grow. During his years of imprisonment, Qutb
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 29
wrote Milestones, a detailed articulation of his Islamist worldview that
specifi cally rebuts the political philosophy of Egypt’s secular government.
Osama bin Laden read this book as a student and was profoundly
infl uenced by it. Following Qutb’s death, the Muslim Brotherhood split
into factions. While the Brotherhood pursued its goals through education
and the political process, Islamic Jihad embraced violence. Its eventual
leader, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, would help to convert bin Laden to
the cause of global jihad.
Qutb’s writings and the example of his life profoundly infl uenced the
young bin Laden. His friend at University, Jamal Khalifa, described this
infl uence. For his parents’ generation, Khalifa explained, Islam was a tradition
that structured their lives. Qutb, however, “was concentrating on
the meaning of Islam that it’s the way of life.” According to Khalifa,
Qutb “infl uenced every Muslim in that period of time.” He also noted
that Qutb’s brother Mohammed, a visiting professor at King Abdul Aziz
University during the late 1970s, used to give lectures which Khalifa
and bin Laden attended. “He was giving us very good lessons about education—
how to educate our children.” 21
Because modern Islamism offers an alternative form of governance
to the secularism of Nasser and other Arab nationalists, it is sometimes
called political Islam. The European Enlightenment of the 18th century
introduced the idea that church and state should separate. This concept,
enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, made religion a purely private
matter. Individuals could worship as they pleased within a civil society
governed by nonreligious law. Islamism (political Islam) rejects this
notion, insisting that Islam govern all areas of life from morality to diet
and dress. Because this desire for a theocratic state in which religion
governs all aspects of life harkens back to what in the West is a pre-
Enlightenment world, Western observers often mistakenly view Islamism
as an atavistic movement rather than as contemporary effort to fi nd
a purely Muslim solution to the challenges of modernity.
THE ISLAMIC AWAKENING
Islamism made little headway outside Egypt, and even there it remained
marginalized. Saudi Arabia alone welcomed Muslim Brotherhood members
fl eeing persecution. The Brotherhood’s Salafi st views accorded well
30 OSAMA BIN LADEN
with the Kingdom’s conservative, Wahhabi Islam, although Saudi clerics
did not support violent jihad. In addition, the Saudi monarchy saw
Nasser’s pan-Arabism as a threat to its existence and considered the
Muslim Brotherhood a useful counter to Nasser’s popularity in the Arab
world. 22 For most educated Arabs, however, emulating the West seemed
to offer the best way forward.
This view suffered a severe shock in June 1967. Within six days, the
army and air force of Israel soundly defeated the forces of Egypt, Syria,
Iraq, and Jordan. They captured the Old City of Jerusalem with its Wailing
Wall and Dome of the Rock, the West Bank of the Jordan River, Gaza,
the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. This humiliating loss led
many Arabs to question the secular basis of their governments. Those of a
religious bent wondered if God were not punishing them for embracing
Western decadence. Amid this turmoil, Islamism grew more popular. Many
Muslims now believed that the way to the future lay through the past.
Only by returning to the values and social system of the prophet’s uma
(community of believers) could Muslim civilization recover the stature
it had once known under the medieval caliphs. This Islamist revival became
known as the “awakening.”
Most Islamists do not, however, use or condone violence to achieve
their goals. Islamism today is a broad movement sometimes called the
“New Islamic Discourse.” Muslim scholars, religious leaders, and intellectuals
within this movement do not wish to turn the clock back to the
seventh century. Instead, they seek to embrace the technological and material
advantages of modernity while preserving Islamic faith, traditions,
and culture. The movement does not reject modernity, but it does challenge
the notion that the only way to modernize is by emulating the example
of the West. Many scholars in the movement accept the advantages
of science and technology but still wish to live in religiously based
societies governed by the principle of consultation rather than mass democracy.
They accept the complementarity but not the strict equality of
the sexes. They wish to decide how best to order their own affairs and
bitterly resent the United States or any other nation that seeks to impose
its way of life upon them. 23 Although many Islamists blame U.S. foreign
policy for threatening their way of life, the real challenge comes from the
forces of globalization, which no one really controls.
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 31
FAMILY
In addition to the intellectual currents of the era, the elaborate bin Laden
family system infl uenced Osama’s outlook. His mother remarried within a
few years of his birth, and his father died when bin Laden was only nine.
Although he revered his father, bin Laden could have had little contact
with a man whose numerous wives and construction projects kept him on
the move. Mohammed’s simple lifestyle and piety infl uenced his young
son, but, as bin Laden grew to manhood, he also had the countervailing
example of his eldest half brother Salem, who became patriarch of the
family upon his father’s death in 1967 and lived the life of an international
playboy. He took bin Laden on some of his trips abroad, although
his younger brother does not seem to have succumbed to the temptations
of the fl esh Salem enjoyed in Europe and America. 24 For a complex variety
of personal reasons, bin Laden practiced the conservative Wahhabi
Islam devoutly and consistently.
Those who knew bin Laden as a young man attest to his desire to emulate
his father’s work ethic and simple life. Khaled Batarfi described how
bin Laden differed from his brothers in this respect. “That’s the way the
bin Ladins are. They study and work all of them, all the people I know,”
Batarfi observed, “but he [bin Laden] was different because he used to
work with his hands, go drive tractors and like his father eat with the
workers, work from dawn to sundown, tirelessly in the fi eld. So he wasn’t
the rich boy.” 25
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S EMERGING WORLDVIEW
How precisely the complex mix of intellectual currents, contemporary
events, and family circumstances shaped bin Laden’s worldview remains
unclear. While the core tenets of his conservative Muslim faith were established
by the time he left high school, his political views had only
begun to take shape. The writings of Qutb, the teachings of his mentor
Abdullah Azzam, and the radial views of Islamic Jihad would complete
the formation of his worldview.
A Saudi journalist who knew bin Laden when he lived in Jeddah
provided what may be the most succinct and incisive assessment of his
beliefs before the life-changing experience of Afghanistan. “Osama was
32 OSAMA BIN LADEN
just like many of us who become part of the [Muslim] Brotherhood
movement in Saudi Arabia. The only difference which set him apart from
me and others, he was more religious,” Jamal Khashoggi recalled.
He adhered to a very strict interpretation of Islam. He did not
smoke, refused to shake hands with women, and watched only the
news on television. No pictures adorned the walls of his home as he
considered art un-Islamic. Although he belonged to a wealthy family
he insisted on living a simple life, eschewing all extravagance. 26
Osama bin Laden’s emerging worldview has been dubbed “jihadist
Salafi sm.” It consists of the core beliefs of the larger Islamist movement:
a rejection of Western law, political systems, and especially secularism as
inappropriate for Muslim societies. Bin Laden also came to believe that
jihad was a duty, what Islamist extremists call the “sixth pillar of Islam.”
His jihad would be waged aggressively against Islam’s enemies, near and
far. He would eventually be persuaded that violence could be used against
other Muslims, especially rulers who failed to govern according to sharia.
However, he had not yet fully embraced these radical beliefs before he
left Saudi Arabia. The Afghan war against the Soviets would be the next
step in his journey toward terrorism.
NOTES
1 . Osama bin Laden, May 1998, in Raymond Ibrahim, ed. and trans., The
Al Qaeda Reader (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), p. 275.
2 . Osama bin Laden, quoted in ibid., p. 276.
3 . Osama bin Laden, quoted in ibid., p. 277.
4 . Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
(New York: Penguin, 2008), pp. 228–229.
5 . Michael Young, “Al-Qaeda’s Forerunner: An Interview with Author and
Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov, on His Latest Book Bin Laden , Describing the 1979
Takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca,” Reason Online , September 27, 2007,
http://www.reason.com/news/printer/122686.html (accessed July 28, 2009).
6. New Oxford Annotated Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991),
New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, p. 295.
7 . For a more detailed discussion of Muslim beliefs and practices see Frederick
Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam , 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan,
1994).
OSAMA BIN LADEN’S WORLDVIEW 33
8 . New Oxford Annotated Bible , New Testament, I Corinthians 8:1–11,
pp. 237–238.
9 . Denny, An Introduction to Islam , pp. 211–214.
10 . Holy Qu’ran, Sura 6:151, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/6.htm#151.
11 . Holy Qu’ran Sura, 2:190, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/2.htm#191.
12 . Explanation of jihad is based on Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Spiritual Significance
of Jihad,” http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC0407-
2391.
13 . Holy Qu’ran, Sura 22:78, translated at http://www.islamicity.com/
mosque/QURAN/22.htm#78.
14 . Bernard Haykel, “Radical Salafism: Osama’s Ideology,” 2001, http://mus
lim-canada.org/binladendawn.html#. The author teaches Islamic Law at New
York University.
15. Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad , translated
and excerpted at http://www.islamistwatch.org/main.html.
16 . Ibid.
17. Giles Kepel, Jihad: In Search of Political Islam , trans. Anthony F. Roberts
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 220.
18. Hasan al-Banna, Jihad , translated at http://www.islamistwatch.org/main.
html.
19. Sayd Qutb, Milestones , translated at http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/
qutb/Milestones/characteristics.html.
20. Qutb, Milestones , http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/qutb/Milestones/
jihad.html.
21. Jamal Khalifa, in Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know (New York:
Free Press, 2006), p. 19.
22 . Coll, The Bin Ladens , p. 203.
23 . Sherifa Zuhur, A Hundred Osamas: Islamist Threats and the Future of
Counterinsurgency (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2005),
pp. 19–23.
24 . Zuhur provides the best account of the bin Laden family.
25 . Khalid Batarfi, cited in Bergen, Osama bin Laden I Know , p. 22.
26 . Jamal Khashoggi, cited in ibid., p. 21.
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Chapter 3
AFGHANISTAN
Events conspired to catapult Osama bin Laden from relative obscurity to
the center of world politics in under a decade. The epic year was 1979. As
already noted, the Iranian Revolution and the siege of the Grand Mosque
sent tremors throughout the Muslim world. At the time, bin Laden had
little to say about either incident, although he later criticized Saudi authorities
for using excessive force to retake the Golden Mosque. He may
have been inspired by these events nonetheless, for he soon took up the
cause of violent jihad in a very direct and personal way.
AFGHAN WAR
It would be diffi cult to exaggerate the impact of the Afghan War against
the Soviets on Osama bin Laden. For the fi rst time in his life, he traveled
far from home and remained abroad for several years. On April 14, 1979,
Soviet forces entered Afghanistan to back its tottering communist regime
against a growing Islamist insurgency. The Soviets built up their forces
throughout the year and, on December 27, overthrew the president and
36 OSAMA BIN LADEN
commenced an offensive against the insurgents. Their force strength eventually
numbered more than 100,000 troops operating in support of an
Afghan army of roughly the same size. With little experience of counterinsurgency
and less patience for waging it, the Soviets conducted a brutal
campaign against the general population, which they believed to be
harboring and supporting the insurgents. An estimated one million Afghans
died in the fi ghting.1 Eighty percent of those killed were civilians.2
Tens of thousands more fl ed to refugee camps across the border in neighboring
Pakistan.
Although heavily outgunned by the Soviets, the insurgents had definite
advantages and some powerful friends. They operated amid a sympathetic
population in ideal guerrilla terrain, which they knew intimately.
Eager to offset Iranian infl uence in the region, Saudi Arabia funneled
money to the Afghan insurgents. The United States also saw an opportunity
to hurt the Soviets in the same way the Soviets had hurt the United
States in Vietnam. Supplying the enemy of your enemy was a cherished
Cold War tactic. The confl ict thus became a proxy war in which the
Americans fought the Russians via the Afghans. National Security Adviser
Zbigniew Brzezinski sent an almost gleeful memo to President Jimmy
Carter on the very day Soviet forces crossed the border. “We now have the
opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War,” he wrote. “Indeed, for
almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government,
a confl ict that brought about the demoralization and fi nally the
breakup of the Soviet empire.”3 The insurgents received cash and weapons,
including highly effective shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles
capable of shooting down the lethal MI-24 “Hind” helicopter gunship.
To avoid a direct confrontation with the Soviets, the CIA had to funnel
aid to the insurgents through a third party. Fortunately, the government
of Pakistan was more than willing to help. Embroiled in a perennial
confl ict with India over Kashmir, Pakistan needed to secure its western
border in order to concentrate on its eastern one. Because this policy of
“strategic depth” necessitated a friendly government in Afghanistan,
Pakistan eagerly supported the Islamist insurgency against the Soviets.
The Pakistanis calculated quite accurately that an Islamist government
in Kabul would be unable to cooperate with Hindu “infi dels” in New
Delhi. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) distributed
U.S. and Saudi funds to the various insurgent groups.
AFGHANISTAN 37
ENTER THE MUJAHEDEEN
The Afghan insurgents not only garnered covert support from the United
States and Saudi Arabia; they also attracted volunteers from all over the
Muslim world. Inspired by Islamist teaching, these foreign mujahedeen
(holy warriors) fl ocked to Afghanistan to wage jihad against the Godless
communists in defense of an Islamic state. The commitment and quality
of these volunteers varied widely. Some had the willingness to fi ght but
lacked the training to be effective soldiers. Others, particularly sons of
wealthy Saudis, engaged in a perverse form of disaster tourism, showing
up for a few weeks during school vacations to play at being guerrillas. Insurgent
commanders tolerated these young men because of the resources
they or their countries provided. Foreign fi ghters never numbered more
than a few thousand at any one time and had no appreciable impact
on the outcome of the war.4 One Saudi journalist succinctly described the
movement: “Altogether, people who spent six years and people who spent
six days, maybe the number will come up to ten thousand,” he wrote. “Because
there was even jihad tour. Jihad vacation.”5 His count totaled all
those who spent time in Afghanistan during a 10-year period. The number
of fi ghters available at any one time was a fraction of that number,
those with ability and training even fewer. However, in the folk mythology
of al-Qaeda, the role of the mujahedeen grew to epic proportions, empowering
the movement to believe that it could accomplish anything.
AFGHAN SERVICES OFFICE
As a young man of 21, Osama bin Laden did not immediately race to Afghanistan
to join the fi ght. He had not yet even embraced any form of political
Islam. He did, however, fall under the infl uence of Abdullah Azzam,
a Palestinian Islamist deeply committed to radical Islamism. Azzam and
bin Laden held many beliefs in common. Azzam belonged to the Muslim
Brotherhood, and bin Laden had read with enthusiasm the works of Sayd
Qutb, one of its leading lights. Azzam had been engaged in the Palestinian
struggle since the 1960s, but the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation
Organization from Jordan in 1971 had temporarily stymied that
effort. Bin Laden had already developed empathy for the Palestinian
cause and a deep visceral hatred of Israel. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan,
Azzam readily embraced the cause of the Afghan insurgents,
38 OSAMA BIN LADEN
even though he believed that Palestine was “the foremost Islamic problem.”
“Whoever can, from among the Arabs, fi ght jihad in Palestine, then
he must start there,” he instructed. “And, if he is not capable, then he
must set out for Afghanistan. For the rest of the Muslims, I believe they
should start their jihad in Afghanistan.” The urgency and chances for
success combined with the purity of the mujahedeen cause, commended
the struggle against the Soviets as a precursor to the fi ght against the Israelis.
6 As a visiting lecturer at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah
in 1981, Azzam publicized the Afghan cause, no doubt with the approval
of the Saudi government, which also supported the mujahedeen. A Pakistani
engineering student described Azzam’s role in promoting the
Afghan cause. “He used to be popular among Arab religious scholars, especially
to Members of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Jamal Ismail recalled.
“He was the one who introduced the Afghan issue to all Muslims.”7
Azzam visited bin Laden’s home in Jeddah during the mid-1980s. Bin
Laden’s university friend described the visit. “Osama invited me to his
house in al Aziziyah [in Jeddah],” Jamal Khalifa recalled. “He has a building
there, he was twenty-fi ve, twenty-six, he’s already married a couple
of times. He told me Abdullah Azzam [was coming]. I knew Abdullah
Azzam from his books. He’s a very good writer and he’s real educated
so I was really eager to hear him when he started to talk about Afghanistan.”
8 The references to bin Laden’s age put the meeting date in 1982
or 1983.
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